Travelling between Istanbul and Serbia I met a German guy who’d cycled out to Turkey and was heading back to Berlin by train.
We agree flying to a city leaves you without a real sense of how that place fits into the country geographically and culturally.
After passing through regions of landscape on the train you have a clear sense of place by the time you arrive. He says cycling into a country is even better, like seeing a flower open up before you.
There’s a nice article here on the troublesome decision of to fly or not to fly.
Here, you will find some reasons not to bother.
I agree, it is special to travel by land. It gives you a sense of the gradual change.
But flying into a city gives you that immediate shock. That sense of difference. Being in west London at lunch and south Damascus in the evening is very disorientating. And I like that.
I remember when Eurostar first opened. It felt like I hadn’t really left London. Unless I listened carefully for the different language – standing on the RER platform at Gare du Nord felt like I could’ve been at Waterloo.